Lee Sung-mi was contacted shortly before the late Lim Yoon-taek’s death... “He was already gone by the time I got to the hospital”

[Financial News] Comedian Lee Sung-mi said she received a call shortly before Lim Yoon-taek, the late leader of Ulala Session, passed away and headed to the hospital, but ultimately could not be with him in his final moments. Lee, who was undergoing treatment for breast cancer, also shared how she and Lim grew close by sharing their treatment schedules with each other.

Lee appeared on the YouTube channel “Saeropge Haseoseo” on the 14th and talked about when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and her connection with Lim Yoon-taek.
Speaking about her experience with cancer, Lee said, “I’m truly grateful that I got cancer. I was grateful even when I got it.”
She said she first met Lim before she was diagnosed with cancer. Lim’s manager, while Lim was undergoing treatment, asked to meet with her, and Lee went to see him with actress Kim Ja-ok.
Lee recalled, “When Yoon-taek was very ill, his manager asked me to come meet him. I didn’t know much about it then because I hadn’t had cancer yet, so I went with Kim Ja-ok.”
At their first meeting, Lim and Kim Ja-ok talked and laughed together. Lee said, “Yoon-taek and Ja-ok were having such a fun conversation. I watched them quietly and thought, ‘Maybe that young man feels empty inside.’”
At the time, Lim had a 100-day-old baby. Lee said she had desperately hoped Lim would recover for the sake of his young child. “When I got home, I prayed, ‘God, please save Yoon-taek. Even if you leave me out, please take this child under your care.’ The child was so young, and I felt I had already lived enough,” she said.
Later, Lee was also diagnosed with breast cancer. She said the first person she contacted after hearing the news was Lim Yoon-taek.
Lee said, “One day, I was doing a broadcast when they told me it was breast cancer. I called Yoon-taek first and said, ‘Yoon-taek, they say I have cancer.’ He replied, ‘Thank you for becoming my fellow patient.’”
Going through the same illness brought the two closer than before. Lee said, “I told him, ‘Now I can talk to you.’ We shared our surgery and checkup dates and laughed together. That’s how we quickly became close.”
But Lim’s condition worsened over time. One day, he told Lee that he wanted to hold a worship service in his hospital room.
Lee said, “One day, Yoon-taek said, ‘Senior, I’d like to worship.’ We sang a hymn he had chosen himself and held a service in his hospital room.”
The evening after Lee held a worship service with Lim in his hospital room, she received an urgent call asking her to come to the hospital. Lee headed there, but Lim had already passed away.
She recalled, “I got a call saying Yoon-taek might pass away the following evening and telling me to come quickly. I cried on the way because I was so upset. He had a young child, and I had prayed for him to be saved. But by the time I got to the hospital, he had already passed away.”
After Lim’s death, Lee said she experienced a mix of emotions, as she herself had been diagnosed with cancer. She said, “I felt so resentful. I had asked for him to be saved, but he didn’t get better, and I had cancer. My emotions were all over the place.”
She said that seeing the deceased one last time also changed how she thought about death. Lee said, “But when I saw Yoon-taek, he was smiling so brightly. In that moment, I thought, ‘I had prayed for him to be saved, but if he could smile so brightly like this rather than die in pain, then perhaps this too is a path I shouldn’t stand in the way of.’”
Lee said that her experience of saying goodbye to Lim also affected how she thought about life and death. She recalled, “We think that being alive is an answer to prayer. But I thought that if someone can leave this world beautifully, we should think about death again, too.”
Lee, who underwent surgery for breast cancer in 2013, also spoke about her current health. She said she was “doing perfectly well” and was in good health.
Lim appeared on Mnet’s “Superstar K3” in 2011 as the leader of Ulala Session and led the group to victory. He later battled stomach cancer and died on February 11, 2013, aged 32.


[email protected] Han Seung-gon Reporter